The Ebon Ward: Episode 1
"There is nothing innately dangerous about a mine full of zombies." - Twitch description for the 1st episode of Ebon Ward Episode Synopsis Deep in the mines the party find Vampire Ruins and have a rather thorough spanking via a Gravebound and are "rescued" by a Keeper by the name of Andrin. Summary We are introduced to five Ebon Ward agents: Musty Macaw - Mysterious Musket Master, dhampire Maze Myers, Gnash the Gnoll, half-orc Suino Songfury, and chef Laurent Redpath. For their first mission the group has been sent to investigate the source of disappearances around the town of Belgrin, and have arrived at the mines following the trail of a strange undead "Hanged Man". After arming themselves with a few bundles of dynamite the party cautiously enters the mine and encounters a mine cart at a branching path filled with a lot more dynamite. Lit dynamite. The following explosion trap causes a cave-in, leaving only one route to move forwards. The group explores an office room and finds a journal referencing some "Dwarven Ruins" found deeper in the mines, and orders to keep digging issued by Cayden, the mayor of Belgrin. The last entry mentions that the dig crew had just dug through to a hidden gorge, but otherwise never found anything interesting to show to the Capital for their efforts. And at the back of the book there is a key that unlocks the path forwards. On the other side of the door the group sees one of the floppy necked Hanged Men in the distance and pursues it down the tunnel to a mine bridge over an underwater river. Distracted by taking down the Hanged Man, they walk into an ambush of moss covered zombies that emerge from the river and start attempting to drown them in the water. After escaping from this encounter the group arrives at an apparent dead-end cave-in (which had been earlier mentioned by some of the townsfolk), but quickly discover that some of the rubble is illusory and they easily pass through to the next section of mine. The dig terminates at a stone archway carved with intricate runes written in Necril which read "Welcome to House Veredis". The party ascends up a stairway and into the Ruins. The first room encountered along the torch lined hallway appears to be a sacrificial chamber and crypt with an altar covered in dried blood at the centre and coffins lining the walls. Suspicious of the open space and seeing that the torches are burning as if recently lit, the party continues down the narrow hallway to a door with no lock or other obvious means of opening. Maze manages to open up the door anyway and reveals a group of 16 rotting men crowding around a staircase. Fortunately, Musty still has the dynamite picked up at the beginning of the mine, which he tosses into the torches at the centre of the room and incinerates all of the undead at once. Unfortunately, this causes yet another cave-in, leaving the party with no choice but to return to the sacrificial chamber. Once the entire party has crossed the threshold into the chamber, they find the entryway cut off by a pit opening in the ground behind them. An armoured skeletal man with glowing smoke pouring through the gaps in its skull emerges from behind the altar wielding a massive sword. The skeletal undead addresses the party threateningly, and Musty starts off the encounter by sending off a shot. In response, the skeletal undead gestures at Musty and a 10 foot deep hole opens below his feet. Rotting undead zombies drop from the ceiling and surround the party. Suino does a knowledge check and concludes that the skeletal man is a "Gravebound", though an unusual variant as these creatures are not usually known for being able to talk. Armed with this knowledge, the party is at first confident in their ability to defeat this enemy, but the mood gradually deteriorates as the various undead prove to be exceptionally strong (i.e. many good GM rolls and poor player rolls). Musty and Suino spend half of the combat dropped into one hole or another, and the party takes massive damage while barely managing to land a hit on the Gravebound itself. Just as the party has reached their lowest point, a half-elf in shining plate armour leaps over the pit blocking off the entrance and channels holy power to immediately combust two zombies with blue fire. And causes a moment of panic as Maze - being a dhampir - is almost accidentally caught in the channel and barely evades. Thoroughly demoralized, the party acts with bitterness towards this sudden ally, especially as they are slow to gain any ground in the fight even with the assistance. Finally, Suino lands the killing blow and the Gravebound crumbles to dust. Completely dissatisfied with this undeserved victory, the party mutters discontentedly and considers using the rest of their dynamite to blow up the mines and abandon their mission to search for survivors. After talking it through a little longer (and accidentally letting drop the phrase "Ebon Ward" within hearing distance of their new ally), the group decides to continue their mission. The unwelcome ally introduces herself as Andrin Dandarious, a paladin of the Keepers. Andrin explains that the Keepers happened to hear of the recent disappearances in the town, and she has come investigating into the mines ahead of two other Keeper companions, who are awaiting more backup at the mine entrance. She channels energy to heal the party (except Maze), and - despite the party acting extremely suspicious - she agrees to travel with them deeper into the ruins to continue their investigation. Appearances * Musty * Maze * Gnash * Suino * Redpath * Andrin Notes & Trivia * Will has mentioned that the decision to stream Ebon Ward was a spontaneous one made by Lamp earlier on the same day as this first recorded session. * The Gravebound fight is the source of one of the most impressive called D20 rolls in Surprise Round history, by Lamp: "I fucking skewer this man with the upcoming three" * At the time that this first episode aired, the twitch.tv/warpedlamp channel was mainly known for hosting the first 4 episodes of Anime Campaign and a few other non-archived TTRPG streams. Category:Ebon Ward Category:Ebon Ward Episodes